Three anti-immigration enforcement protesters were arrested on federal charges for disrupting a Sunday worship service at Cities Church, a Southern Baptist congregation in St. Paul, Minnesota, where pastor David Easterwood works for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

About 36 protesters entered the church during the service last Sunday. Some walked up to the pulpit while others loudly chanted “ICE out” and “Renee Good,” referring to a woman who was fatally shot on January 7 by an ICE officer in Minneapolis.

The disruption marks a rare instance of protesters targeting a house of worship directly. While civil disobedience has long been part of American religious and civil rights history, church protests remain uncommon and divisive even among clergy who oppose current immigration enforcement tactics.

The History of Worship Disruption

Civil disobedience by Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and others led to landmark legislation during the Civil Rights Movement. More recently, in 1989, members of AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power (ACT UP) disrupted Mass at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York, shouting and lying in the aisles to protest what they saw as the government and Catholic Church’s weak response to the AIDS crisis.

American religious history includes earlier examples. Radical Quakers in colonial America disrupted services they considered illegitimate. The African Methodist Episcopal Church traces its 18th-century origins to a walkout by Black worshippers from a white church where they experienced discrimination. In the 1960s, civil rights activists staged “kneel-ins” at segregated churches.

Charles C. Haynes, a senior fellow for religious liberty at the Freedom Forum, noted that civil disobedience is “by nature violating the law to bring attention to a cause.” He said that “Absolutely, in my view, civil rights law should be invoked when people interfere with the religious freedom of others in their house of worship.”

The three protesters are charged under a federal law originally enacted after the Civil War to counter vigilante groups like the Ku Klux Klan. The law has been revised and applied to a wide range of violations of constitutional rights. It carries a penalty of up to 10 years in prison, or more if the violation involves injury, death or destruction of property.

Before her arrest, civil rights attorney Nekima Levy Armstrong, who describes herself as a Christian, depicted the protest in religious terms on Facebook: “It’s time for judgment to begin and it will begin in the House of God!!!”

Religious Leaders Divided

Kevin Ezell, president of the Southern Baptists’ North American Mission Board, responded strongly to the disruption: “No cause — political or otherwise — justifies the desecration of a sacred space or the intimidation and trauma inflicted on families gathered peacefully in the house of God.”

Other religious leaders expressed more measured views. Bishop Mariann Budde of the Episcopal Diocese of Washington, who served as a priest in Minnesota for 18 years and traveled to the state this week to protest ICE enforcement, said: “No one should fear for their safety or security in a house of worship — whether they are members of Cities Church or immigrants afraid to enter for fear of detention.”

Brian Kaylor, a Cooperative Baptist Fellowship-affiliated minister and leader of the Christian media organization Word&Way, has criticized the Trump administration’s treatment of immigrants. But he said he was “very torn” by the church protest. “It would be very alarming if we come to see this become a widespread tactic across the political spectrum,” he said.

The Minnesota Council of Churches, while joining calls for a boycott of shopping, school and work, declined to comment on the arrests of the church protesters.

The Broader Context

In January 2025, federal immigration agencies announced they could make arrests in churches, schools and hospitals, ending the traditional protection of people in sensitive spaces. Many faith leaders expressed dismay at the policy change.

Some churches have responded by posting notices saying federal immigration officers are not allowed inside. Others have reported drops in attendance, particularly during immigration enforcement surges.